So...been a while hasn't it? I'll admit, being something of an introvert I don't have much of a draw in engaging with the masses as it were, and have been content with just sharing my stories and commissioned pieces and seeing if folks enjoy some of the things that I do. And it seems that people indeed do. So I thought I'd call upon you fine folks for a little group brainstorming to give me a hand.

As some of you may be familiar with, I have a character called Void, a goo based character in a vaguely defined superhero setting of mine. He operates as an unknown vigilante in the city he lives in (where superheroes operate as something between police and private security contractors in terms of legal authority and enforcement) so that he can weaponize fear against criminal elements in a way that registered heroes really can't do legally. The reputation he's cultivated is of some kind of demon (as nobody is quite sure what he is) that stalks the city and hunts down evil in a predatory way. As he's not a registered hero, he feels he can more effectively "scare straight" criminals (regardless of how effective or ethical the methodology is) if people think he is beholden to no rules like superheroes are, and also that he is too "alien" to reason or bargain with.

Here's where I've run into a snag I've yet to untangle to my satisfaction. See, the original conceit was that he'd use his goo form to capture people from time to time with witnesses who would believe he had absorbed and digested the offender, and later release them. However, as a "mysterious vigilante" who doesn't have Batman's finances, making people "disappear" is not easy. Releasing them in the next town over with threats of violence if they reveal themselves I can't see being sustainable, since it seems it wouldn't be long until someone spilled the beans or they were just found again (quite possibly by being arrested again), and once the secret's out of what Void's really doing, the fear factor drops. I had a notion that he forced them into witness protection to disappear, but then it wouldn't be long before the authorities caught wind of the pattern and, again, his cultivated reputation is likely to go out the window without someone on the inside functionally cooperating with him. I don't see the local or federal authorities covertly allowing his activities and it'd take more than a few people helping him out to get these people into witness protection with few questions asked and the right paperwork filled out.

So what I'd like some feedback on is if the witness protection angle may be more workable than I give it credit for, and if not, what might Void do instead to instill fear in criminal elements that's not based around the theatrics of pretending to kill people that works as a solo operation?